Many mobile devices available today are capable of playing music, video, and other content. This content is frequently synchronized with another data processing system, such as a desktop computer. In current embodiments, after the synchronized content is available on the mobile device, the device itself is responsible for sorting the content so it can be presented to the user. Sorting the large amounts of content that can be stored on today's mobile devices is expensive, in that the mobile device is generally locked and unusable by the user while the sorting occurs and expensive in that it consumes battery power. Generating sort keys for the content prior to performing the sort is especially expensive.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a prior art system. At time t0, a device begins syncing with a host. At time t1, the sync is complete and the device has the synchronized content. The device then begins the process of sorting the synchronized data collection, which is complete at time t2. From t0 to t2, the content is unavailable to the user, either because it is being synchronized (t0 to t1) or being sorted by the device (t1 to t2). As noted above, this has a negative impact on the user experience, since the device is inaccessible to the user, and is expensive, because the sorting process consumes battery and generates heat.